Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 592 The Spectacular Opening Ceremony
Of course, while ticket sales are biased towards foreign tourists to some extent, the price must be geared towards Spanish audiences.

Carlo understands this point well. After all, native Spaniards are his subjects, and these foreign tourists are just contributing to Spain's tourism industry; they are not Spanish citizens.

According to discussions between the Spanish sports authorities and the International Olympic Committee, the ticket price for the Madrid Olympics was finally set at 3 pesetas per ticket.

Of course, this is the price for foreign tourists. If a Spaniard buys a ticket, they can get a discount of about 30%, with the final price being around 2 pesetas.

In this day and age, those who can afford to travel abroad are not concerned about the price difference of 1 peseta. For native Spaniards, a 1-peseta reduction in ticket price better reflects Carlo's preference for Spaniards.

Whether it's 2 or 3 pesetas, the ticket price isn't actually that high. Based on the renovated Lelta bullring's 4.5 seats, if tickets sell out every day, daily ticket revenue could reach over 10 pesetas.

The Olympics will last for a month and a half, and the revenue from ticket sales alone will reach approximately 450 million pesetas.

If we take into account the cost of snacks and drinks purchased by spectators during the games, as well as the tourism and economic growth brought about by the tourists attracted by the Olympics, Spain's direct revenue from hosting the Olympics is expected to reach over 1000 million pesetas, with indirect revenue likely to be even higher.

In terms of cost, the Spanish government invested a great deal of money to host a record-breaking Olympic Games.

The renovation of the Lelta bullring cost as much as 25 pesetas, and if it is to be renovated back into a bullring in the future, it will cost at least another 15 pesetas.

The total cost of preparing accommodations and training facilities for sports delegations from around the world was close to 60 pesetas, which also included the cost of sending cruise ships to transport the delegations.

The prize money for each competition event, the purchase of competition facilities, and other expenses amounted to approximately 70 pesetas.

The extensive European-wide publicity campaign, which began in 1916, cost more than 120 million pesetas.

All the various expenses combined mean that Spain's total expenditure for hosting the Madrid Olympics was approximately 400 million pesetas, and there will be some fluctuations later, but it will not exceed 500 million pesetas in total.

Based on the results achieved so far, this Olympic Games should be profitable, and has almost doubled its costs.

One very important reason for this is that Spain's economy was not affected by the World War; on the contrary, it experienced tremendous growth during the war.

The 1920 Antwerp Olympics, also held shortly after World War II, were not as fortunate as Spain.

Although the Olympics were held more than a year after the end of World War II, the Belgian people could not afford to buy tickets for the Games because Belgium itself was not strong enough and the country had been occupied by Germany for a long time.

Although the Antwerp Olympics attracted a large number of foreign tourists and foreigners to watch the games, an Olympics cannot be profitable by relying solely on foreign spectators.

The end result was that the Antwerp Olympics caused Belgium heavy losses and had a certain impact on Belgium's post-war economic recovery.

Spain today is completely different. Its domestic economy and industry were unaffected by the war, leading to an increase in per capita annual income.

With most people having some savings, they are also willing to spend more on sports and entertainment.

More importantly, Carlo's universal healthcare policy has only recently begun to show results, and the public is quite grateful to the Spanish government and Carlo.

This coincided with the upcoming Madrid Olympics, and most Spanish people were happy to give the government some support, especially since watching a sporting event was not a bad thing.

According to reports from some newspapers and media outlets, King Juan Carlos of Spain will personally attend the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, as well as the award ceremony for the gold medalists.

This is also a major reason why Spaniards buy tickets to the Olympic Games. Spaniards are very happy to see their king.

The Spanish people have boundless admiration for Carlo, and they are willing to buy a ticket just to catch a glimpse of His Majesty the King from afar.

A few days passed quickly, and on June 16, 1916, the sixth Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Madrid Olympics, officially opened in Madrid, the capital of Spain.

The Spanish government attached great importance to the opening ceremony, conducting multiple rehearsals before it began and deploying a large number of police officers from across the country to Madrid to maintain order.

Tickets for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games were sold out, and the streets and alleys around the Olympic venues were also packed with onlookers.

Newspapers and media outlets around the world made rough estimates of the number of people who gathered to watch the opening ceremony of the Madrid Olympics that day, and came up with a rather exaggerated figure: at least 15 people gathered around the Lelta bullring that day, which clearly far exceeded the original record for Olympic viewership.

The Madrid Olympics has become a world-renowned sporting event, attracting extraordinary attention not only in Spain but also in many countries and around the world.

It was King Juan Carlos of Spain who officially declared the start of the Madrid Olympics. As Juan Carlos formally announced the commencement of the 1916 Madrid Olympics, thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the crowd.

Foreign spectators simply enjoy the grand and lively spectacle, while the Spanish people are proud of their king and proud that their country can host such a grand sporting event.

Journalists from other countries rarely witnessed such an achievement, and they immediately pointed their cameras at Carlo and the cheering crowd, eager to record this moment.

On that day, news in Spain and even throughout Europe was undoubtedly dominated by events related to the Olympics. The first gold medalist from the opening ceremony also became one of the most discussed news stories in Europe that day.

The good news is that the first gold medalist of the Olympics was a Spanish athlete, which can be considered a good start for the Spanish Olympics.

Of course, this was not a coincidence, but the result of careful planning by the Spanish sports authorities.

The Madrid Olympics were destined to be the focus of global attention, and the winner of the first gold medal that day will undoubtedly be frequently mentioned in the years to come. As the host country, Spain naturally couldn't allow the first gold medal to be snatched away by another nation.

Therefore, the first event of the Olympics must be one that Spain excels at, in order to ensure that the first gold medal is won by a Spanish athlete.

This is pretty much the norm for all countries hosting the Olympics. The host country naturally has a huge advantage, and other countries are happy to give the host country face.

Furthermore, since Spain was a superpower, other countries would not have any objections to this matter, nor would they dare to have any objections.

Carlo was very satisfied that Spain won the first gold medal at the Madrid Olympics.

At the awards ceremony following the competition, Carlo personally presented the Spanish athlete with the gold medal and awarded him a check for 2000 pesetas as a prize for winning the gold medal.

Although both gold medals and prize money are Olympic traditions, the fact that the Spanish athlete was personally awarded the medal by King Carlos of Spain still excited him greatly, and his face even turned slightly flushed with excitement.

Carlo smiled and offered a few words of encouragement to the Spanish athlete, then praised him as the pride of Spain, concluding the brief award ceremony amidst the enthusiastic gazes of the surrounding Spanish athletes.

As expected, the news that day, featuring Carlo personally presenting the award and the Spanish athlete becoming the first gold medalist at the Olympics, became the hottest news reports in Spain and even all of Europe.

Carlo also hopes to enhance the national pride of Spaniards through such news reports. As for whether Spain's first gold medal was won by cheating, no one will say or know anyway.

After the first competition, the subsequent events remained fair and just.

Although Spain, as the host country, is destined to have a natural advantage, Carlo does not want the carefully organized Olympics to ultimately turn into a scandal.

Besides favoring Spanish athletes when setting up competition events, both Spanish and IOC referees must ensure fairness and impartiality during the official start of each event, and must not favor athletes from any particular country.

This was a point that Carlo had specifically reminded the Spanish sports authorities and the International Olympic Committee of, and it drew their attention. They even repeatedly assured Carlo that they would absolutely not allow any biased refereeing at the Madrid Olympics.

With so many Olympic Games held over the years, the various competition systems and refereeing systems have become quite standardized.

Unlike previous Olympic Games, starting with the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Olympic gold medals are no longer just a matter of honor, but are truly recorded in history and recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

This is why European and even global countries attach great importance to this Olympic Games. They have all sent their best athletes, hoping to win a gold medal at the Madrid Olympics, bring glory to their country, and accumulate honor.

To further inspire athletes' enthusiasm for winning glory for their country, the Madrid Olympics added a special element: medal winners could be draped in the national flag during the award ceremony.

For athletes from any country, wearing their national flag is the highest honor and the best reward for their hard work in the Olympics.

For the gold medal winner, there is an even greater reward: the national anthem of the gold medal winner's country will be played at the award ceremony.

Such elements became a standard practice in later Olympic Games, but at this time, Spain was the first country to propose these two elements.

The effect of being draped in the national flag and having the national anthem played goes without saying; every athlete who gets to enjoy such treatment is moved to tears at the awards ceremony.

The photo of the Spanish athlete who won the first gold medal at the Madrid Olympics, draped in the Spanish flag and proudly singing the Spanish national anthem with his mouth open, became one of the most popular news photos during the Olympics, second only to the photo of Carlos awarding the gold medal to the athlete.

The photos of each country's first gold medalist draped in their national flag became a hot topic in the country's news reports that day.

Judging from the level of attention garnered by the Madrid Olympics, Spain's hosting of the Games was quite successful. Especially after certain modifications to the medal ceremony, European countries began to place great importance on each gold medalist, and their citizens hailed these athletes as national heroes. Each gold medal was celebrated by the people of its respective country, and the athletes' fame spread overnight.

There was another piece of good news for Carlo: despite the large-scale mobilization of police forces from other cities in Spain, Madrid maintained relatively good security during the Olympics.

Although occasional security incidents do occur, the large number of police officers allows them to arrive at the scene quickly and prevent the situation from escalating further.

As for those crimes hidden in the shadows, Carlo issued a strict order that no one should affect Spain's security situation during the Olympics.

All crimes committed during the Olympic Games will be punished severely. Short-term imprisonment will be commuted to long-term imprisonment, long-term imprisonment to life imprisonment, and life imprisonment to the death penalty. There will be zero tolerance for any criminal.

Those who target foreign tourists, attempt to tarnish Spain's reputation, and disrupt Spain's immigration policy should be punished severely and swiftly.

Under such tough measures, the security situation in Spain improved significantly during the Olympics, with the crime rate decreasing rather than increasing.

Of course, this is also because Spain's economic environment is very good now. As long as people are willing to work, they can eat their fill, so naturally no one would take the risk.

As for those who remain obstinate or unrepentant, they would have been dealt with by the Spanish security authorities long ago during the long period of improving public security, and it is impossible for them to be allowed to cause trouble now.

And it must be said, this tough approach did indeed have a very good effect. Large numbers of foreign tourists flocked to Madrid, Spain in a short period of time, and they were surprised to find that Madrid's security was even better than that of their home countries. Walking in Madrid at night, they had no worries about their personal safety; it was truly a tourist paradise.

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(End of this chapter)